Alliance Online News: Upcoming Webinar: Federal Funding Update

Newsletters | September 3, 2013

Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 4, at 3 p.m. ET, policy staff from the Alliance and CSH will host a webinar providing advocates and other interested stakeholders with an update on fiscal year (FY) 2014 funding legislation. The webinar will cover where funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) currently stands in Congress, as well as what the next steps will be for the legislation through September. During the webinar, speakers will also discuss opportunities throughout September for stakeholders to advocate for increased funding levels for key programs like HUD's McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants.

FY 2012 CoC Competition Debriefing Webcast
HUD has now made a webcast on the FY 2012 Continuum of Care (CoC) Program Competition Debriefing available for streaming on its website. This webcast summarizes the results of the FY 2012 competition, including information about CoCs' performance in specific areas, and provides a list of resources for CoCs to use in the next competition. The webcast also provides a brief summary of what to expect in the FY 2013 CoC Program Competition. Watch the webcast

Webinar Recording on Housing Choice Voucher and Public Housing Programs
A recording of a webinar that originally streamed on August 19, "Ending Homelessness Through the Housing Choice Voucher and Public Housing Programs," is now available for streaming on the HUD website. The webinar covered the guidance HUD released in June on documenting and housing strategies for Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) through the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program and Public Housing. The webinar also covered the definition of homelessness that PHAs will now be required to use for reporting purposes.Watch the recording

HUD Publishes Notice on Violence Against Women Act

HUD has published a notice in the Federal Registry on the applicability of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA 2013), which President Obama signed into law in March. VAWA 2013 was a renewal of 1994 legislation protections for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault. The bill expands the housing protections afforded to survivors under the 2011 reauthorization of the program. Homeless service programs funded under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Program will be expected to comply with the existing and new housing protections for survivors of violence and assault. HUD is inviting comments by Monday, October 7.

Some of the additional changes in the law's protections include:

Extending housing protections to survivors of sexual assault;

Adding 'intimate partner' to the list of eligible relationships under the domestic violence definition;

Covering an 'affiliated individual' of the victim;

Requiring each appropriate agency to develop a notice of rights under VAWA for tenants; and

Requiring agencies to adopt a model transfer plan for public housing agencies and owners or managers of housing.

The Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF) is using an online survey to learn more about the impact of federal budget cuts under sequestration on residents of subsidized housing and administrators of HUD programs. CHCDF will use the information from the survey as the basis for a report on the effects of sequestration on users of non-defense discretionary programs, including housing programs. The report will also highlight the successes of these programs prior to sequestration.